Best Wireless Speakers for TV

Why do you need wireless speakers for TVs? When it comes to sound quality, the built-in speakers you’ll find on most TVs are lacking substantially. Most people will opt to supplement the built-in TV speakers with either a surround sound system or by adding a soundbar. If that’s what you’re after, you’ll want to skip ahead to the “Soundbars and Home Theater Systems” section of this article

The other dilemma many households face is when one person has a hard time hearing, but everyone else can hear just fine. Simply turning up the volume for that person to hear means it will be way too loud of all the others. That’s where portable TV speakers come in.

Rather than just making the audio louder, these speakers feature dialogue enhancements. This enables speech to sound clearer and easier to hear over the background and special effect sounds. Because they’re portable, you are able to place the speaker right beside you, bringing the sound even closer. Additionally, these speakers allow you to connect headphones. This is particularly useful in the case where one person needs sound enhancement and the other does not.

What are you looking for?

Update: This page was updated on February 2022. For a full update history, click here.

Why Did We Select These Speakers?

When we were researching the products for this list, we decided that there were two markets within this niche. Those looking for assistive technology to help here dialogue better, and those looking to improve their current sound setup.

When it comes to assistive technology, we understand that being able to hear the TV more clearly is your goal. We selected speakers that focus on bringing the sound closer to you. The first three speakers are portable for up to 100ft away from their receivers. They allow you to change the tone of the dialogue to help those with poor frequency perception.

When selecting our list of soundbars to improve your current sound setup, we specifically looked at the Bluetooth and wireless offering, if the speaker has aptX Low Latency codec, and the available connections in case you have latency issues. We have made sure that the assistive technology speakers provide you with some freedom. The minimum connectivity range is 30 feet from the audio source.

The soundbars on our list do not have every connection as listed above. Some only use Bluetooth, others use Bluetooth and Wifi, and for each speaker, there is a different combination. Be sure to read the descriptions carefully before making your decision.

Understanding Wireless Speakers for TV

Wireless speakers are loudspeakers that receive audio signals using radio frequency (RF waves) rather than audio cables. The two most popular RF frequencies that support audio transmission to wireless speakers for TVs include a variation of Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11. In contrast, others depend on Bluetooth to transmit audio data to the receiving speaker.

There are two different configurations involving audio transmission because some TVs don’t have Bluetooth. Wireless speakers that work with non-Bluetooth TVs are composed of two units. The main speaker unit combines the loudspeaker itself with an RF receiver and an RF transmitter unit.

The transmitter connects to the audio output of any audio devices such as a TV, hi-fi equipment, computer, etc. An RCA plug is normally used to achieve this. The receiver (the speaker) is positioned where the listener wants the sound to be. Providing the freedom to move the wireless speakers around without using cables. Most modern television now comes with Bluetooth and can now connect with your speakers seamlessly.

This is possible because the TV’s Bluetooth and the speakers enable communicating and exchanging data over short distances, less than 10m or 30ft. The Bluetooth technology sends and receives radio waves in a band of 79 different frequencies (channels) centered on 2.45 GHz.

These are usually ultra-compact, portable speakers with a base station at the TV or audio source and then the portable speaker itself.

These portable TV speakers are not excessively loud and are simply meant to bring the sound closer to someone’s ears so they don’t have to have to put the volume on full blast on the TV or strain to hear. Most portable TV speakers have a headphone output so the listener has the choice of using the speaker or listening on headphones.

Rather than Bluetooth or WiFi, the base station or transmitter and speaker will connect via a pre-programmed radiofrequency. Usually in the UHF frequency range. Essentially, this is like picking up a radio station. The benefits of UHF, as opposed to Bluetooth, are a much better range (around 100ft) and better connectivity with less dropout.

Non-portable wireless speakers for TV include soundbars and home theater systems that offer wireless input connectivity. In most cases, this is a Bluetooth or WiFi connection. For multiple speaker systems, the wireless connectivity extends to the speakers, meaning reduced or no speaker cables.

The technology for speakers to be completely wireless is still fairly advanced so you won’t find this kind of system for less than a few hundred dollars. In most of the less expensive systems, the rear surrounds will connect to a satellite decoder/receiver via speaker cable. Only the advanced high-end home theater systems will have independent wireless connectivity to each individual speaker.

As you can see from the above, wireless speakers for TV could mean wireless on the input or output end. Most speakers offer a wireless input but not many connect wirelessly to replace speaker cables and of course, you will still need a power cable. Therefore, no “wireless” speaker for TV is ever completely wireless, as it needs to plug into a power source.

What Makes a TV Speaker Wireless

Wireless speakers are loudspeakers that receive audio signals using radio frequency (RF waves) rather than audio cables. The two most popular RF frequencies that support audio transmission to wireless loudspeakers include a variation of Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11. In contrast, others depend on Bluetooth to transmit audio data to the receiving speaker.

There are two different configurations involving audio transmission because some TVs don’t have Bluetooth. Wireless speakers that work with non-Bluetooth TVs are composed of two units. The main speaker unit combines the loudspeaker itself with an RF receiver and an RF transmitter unit.

The transmitter connects to the audio output of any audio devices such as a TV, hi-fi equipment, computer, etc. An RCA plug is normally used to achieve this. The receiver (the speaker) is positioned where the listener wants the sound to be. Providing the freedom to move the wireless speakers around without using cables. Most modern television now comes with Bluetooth and can now connect with your speakers seamlessly.

This is possible because the TV’s Bluetooth and the speakers enable communicating and exchanging data over short distances, less than 10m or 30ft. The Bluetooth technology sends and receives radio waves in a band of 79 different frequencies (channels) centered on 2.45 GHz.

How Wireless Connectivity Affects Audio Signal

In comparison to Bluetooth, a transmitter and speaker will connect via a pre-programmed radiofrequency. Usually in the UHF frequency range. Essentially, this is like picking up a radio station. The benefits of UHF, as opposed to Bluetooth, are a much better range (around 100ft) and better connectivity with less dropout.

Latency within wireless connectivity In a Bluetooth audio chain, you have a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter sends the audio signal to the receiver. This audio signal uses a specific bandwidth to “travel” from source to destination. The bigger the audio signal’s file size, the more bandwidth it needs to get to the receiver.

When using a wired connection or an aux cable, latency is reduced to 5 to 10ms (milliseconds). When the same file is transferred via wireless connectivity, especially with Bluetooth, the latency can increase to 100-300ms. It needs to be said that Bluetooth technology has drastically improved since its introduction in 2000. Since then, the variables that affect sound quality in conjunction with wireless Bluetooth connections have decreased.

Wireless Bluetooth speakers have received considerable criticism as the years have gone by. This is mainly about RF interference with other signals sources like cordless phones and the relatively low sound qualities some models deliver. But with the expansion of Bluetooth technology, devices can automatically detect and connect to one another. This can simultaneously happen with eight devices communicating with each other simultaneously. They can avoid interference with other devices because of 79 available channels made available to them.

If two devices are corresponding, they pick a channel randomly, and if that’s already taken, it randomly switches another channel. The development of this technique is known as spread-spectrum frequency hopping. With such improvements, wireless speakers have gained popularity with consumers, and a growing number of models are actively marketed as small and portable.

Wireless Speakers for TV – Update Log